


here's a hand my trusted friends

by allsassnoclass (brightblackholes)



Series: Ficmas 2020 [7]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fireworks, Gen, Harry is Queer, Hiatus, New Year's Eve, Post-Hiatus, Snowball Fight, just lots of friendship feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightblackholes/pseuds/allsassnoclass
Summary: Liam invites the boys to spend New Year's Eve with him in a cabin in Canada.
Relationships: Niall Horan & Liam Payne & Harry Styles & Louis Tomlinson
Series: Ficmas 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071215
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	here's a hand my trusted friends

**Author's Note:**

> what is this???? I'm actually posting something for One Direction?????????????
> 
> Anyway! Ficmas Day 7! I wanted to get this out earlier but it's still December 31 for me so I'm counting that as a win.
> 
> For the purposes of this fic, Jay's death does not happen at the end of 2016. In this universe, she is alive and happy.
> 
> Title is from Auld Lang Syne :) if you need a version to listen to, the Straight No Chaser version is the only valid one

Liam arrives at the house before anyone else, key unfamiliar in his hand and nearly swallowed by his gloves. It’s a cabin in Canada, somewhere rural enough that they can exist without being discovered and hounded, chosen specifically to give them a bit of peace tonight. The front yard is covered in a thick sheet of snow, smooth and undisturbed by footprints, and he grabs the railing by the stairs to ensure that he won’t slip on his way to the front door, kicking off as much snow as possible from his boots so he doesn’t track it inside.

The house is a bit cold and drafty, so he goes around turning on the heat and double-checking that all four of the bedrooms are clean as promised and that the fridge and cupboards are stocked with the food he ordered. The entire place is furnished in the welcoming but impersonal way that every temporary lodging is, from hotel rooms to vacation mansions, and he almost mourns that they won’t be here long enough to put their mark on it. Getting a fire started in the fireplace warms the atmosphere a bit, and once the other boys get here there will be other things to focus on.

He hopes it’ll be easy. The idea of seeing the boys again for the first time in a year hadn’t made him nervous yesterday, but the closer he gets to everyone’s arrival, the more anxiety gathers in his gut.

He misses them. He wants to spend time with them and give them each a hug and feel like they’re brothers again. They’re not  _ really _ getting the band back together, because it’s not time yet, but they’re figuratively getting the band back together.

To go from seeing the boys almost constantly for five years to barely seeing them at all over the past year was an adjustment. You don’t notice the changes when you’re with someone all the time. He’s not ready to see how drastically different they all might have become when he wasn’t looking. He doesn’t want to look at them and not recognize every inch.

The doorbell launches him out of his thoughts and towards the door. He checks the peephole before opening, a habit he’s been in since fame began breeding unwelcome visitors, then wretches open the door to let Louis in from the cold.

“Hey, Payno,” Louis says, and the sound of his voice, unfiltered by phone lines or video chats, is enough to make something out of place inside Liam realign again.

“Louis!” he greets, pulling him into a hug before taking his bag so he can shed his coat and hat.

“Bloody cold out there, isn’t it?” Louis says, tucking his arms around himself. “Anyone else here yet?”

“Just you,” Liam says. “Means you get to pick your room first.”

Louis nods. Liam has missed the familiar way he presses his lips together in a smile when he’s pleased about something. It makes him feel warm to see that face now.

Niall arrives next, after Liam has given Louis a tour of the house and already been given shit for his food choices. Niall automatically brings a joy and brightness with him wherever he goes, even if his hair is no longer bleached blond and instead growing out in his natural brown. His laugh is the same, though, a welcome sound when he gets into it with Louis.

Harry is last, uncharacteristically late with an apologetic excuse about road conditions and a delayed flight. He collects hugs from all of them and gracefully accepts the last and least desirable room, saying that it’s charming. It doesn’t really matter, because all of them will only be here for a night, anyway.

Liam had invited Zayn as well, but he said he wasn’t ready yet. When Zayn left, he  _ left _ , isolating himself until he felt like he could breathe again. Liam has been trying to convince him that seeing the boys again without the hustle and bustle and strict confines of the band won’t be suffocating, but it’s no use. Zayn isn’t ready, but Liam will be here when he is. Hopefully the other boys will be, too.

They have a large and messy dinner, all four of them trying to contribute to the cooking in a way that creates more chaos than help. Harry spends a lot of time threatening to hit Louis with a spoon if he continues being a nuisance while Niall sneaks bites of ingredients behind his back, sharing a wink with Liam when caught. It’s edible, at least, and they fall into a comfortable pattern of conversation. The cadence of their voices is familiar, one more thing that Liam knows he shouldn’t have worried about being different since they were last together. If there’s one thing he’ll never forget, it’s the sound of each of their voices.

Washing up after takes no time at all with all four of them helping, the kitchen just as spotless as they found it by the time they move into the front room to sit by the fire. Niall tends to it, getting it roaring again while they sit in the dim light on lumpy furniture with various beverages of choice.

“Any New Year’s resolutions?” Liam asks.

“I don’t know,” Niall says. “I haven’t made resolutions in a long time.”

There should be more to add, but none of them do. Thinking back, Liam hasn’t really made resolutions in a long time, either. Once they formed the band, everything was a whirlwind, and sometimes it felt like they had no agency or control, brought along for the ride only because they had their seatbelts on. They kept reaching for new heights, ones Liam would never have fathomed making goals for, and once you get that high it becomes difficult to find something else to reach for. When you overshoot the moon, where can you go before you forget what Earth looked like?

Last year, Liam’s resolution had been to survive.

“Probably spend more time with the family, like always,” Louis says eventually, when the silence has stretched like taffy and comes too close to snapping. “Maybe work on more creative projects again.”

Liam nods.

“I think,” Harry says slowly, “I want to come out. Well, no, that’s not right. I want to feel like I don’t have to hide.”

He looks around at all of them, and Liam hopes he can see the support there. It’s always been difficult for Harry to feel like he had to stifle that part of him, but they always backed him one hundred percent. It was never the members of the band that were the issue.

“I hope you can do that,” Louis says, reaching over to squeeze Harry’s knee.

“Yeah, you deserve it,” Liam agrees. Niall pats him on the back, prompting Harry to smile, a small thing that grows until it takes over his face.

“What about you, Liam?” Harry asks. “What are your resolutions?”

“Dunno,” he says. “I just want to live better, I think. There’s always something that can be improved.”

_ Ensure that I see you guys again _ feels too personal. It’s funny: once they stopped being forced to hang out with each other at every waking moment, all of them forgot how. If any of them had said no to spending New Year’s Eve together, Liam isn’t sure if he could’ve maintained hope in their friendship. He doesn’t know when he would see any of them next if each of them hadn’t sighed in relief at his phone call.

The band will not be getting back together this year. The eighteen month hiatus won’t stick to its timeline. None of them wanted to put the band on hold, but all of them  _ needed _ it, and Liam knows that they haven’t fully recovered yet. He doesn’t know when they will.

Zayn still won’t see them in person two years later. They all move at their own pace, but it’s become clear that it’s a pace much slower than all of them anticipated.

When it nears midnight, Liam suggests that they bundle up and watch the fireworks from outside. Although the nearby town is small, Liam has been assured that their New Year’s fireworks display is visible from the house, best seen in the backyard. Everyone gets on coats and boots with minimal complaining, staining the flat expanse of snow with their footprints. The back light is bright, illuminating up until the treeline of the small forest at the back of the property.

“We should go exploring,” Harry says.

“Yeah, if you want to get eaten by a bear,” Niall says, sounding scandalized. “Do you know how dangerous tramping around an unfamiliar forest at night is?”

“You should be more worried about nearby dangers,” Louis says. That’s all the warning any of them get before Niall is hit in the face with a snowball. He rears back, sputtering.

“Louis!” Harry scolds, but he’s not the next target. Louis sets his sights on Liam, another snowball already being packed together in his hands.

“If you do this, you’re declaring war,” Liam warns. “And I’ve got a good throwing arm.”

It’s no use. Louis has the same look on his face that has meant trouble for the past six years, so Liam ducks for cover. What follows is a snowball fight the likes of which he hasn’t seen since the early days of the band. Niall joins him in his crusade against Louis, and Harry flounders in an attempt to remain neutral until a stray snowball thrown by Liam hits him.

(His throwing arm may be powerful, but he never claimed it was especially accurate.)

Casualties are many on both sides. Niall complains about snow in his shoes. Louis is too fast to make an easy target, so Harry takes a lot of hits. Louis’s attacks become increasingly fiercer every time he takes damage. Liam runs around the yard and scoops up snow to fling around, feeling more like a kid than he has in a long time. He’s only 23, but he’s been wrangling everyone around him and trying to be the mature one since the X-Factor house. It feels especially freeing to participate in something as juvenile as a snowball fight when he knows that there are no other responsibilities waiting for him.

The fight eventually ends when Harry manages to stuff snow down the back of Liam’s jacket. He’s not proud of the way he shrieks, but he thinks it’s justified, even if the others laugh at him.

The first firework goes off a moment later, gold sparks lighting the sky.

“Lads,” Niall says, pointing up as explosion after explosion paint the night in fleeting and colorful hues.

“Happy New Year!” Liam yells.

“Happy 2017!”

They whoop and laugh, Niall breaking into a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” that the rest of them mess up the words to. Harry links their arms together, reaching out to invite everyone into contact, and all of them stand on the lawn, eyes drawn upwards, singing out of tune about old friends.

Liam has been to some amazing parties over the years. None of them can compare to this moment and the easy knowledge that he’ll have infinite more with these boys by his side in the future. Even when they’re not in a band, there still is something drawing all of them together, and none of them will let that go.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [allsassnoclass!](http://allsassnoclass.tumblr.com)


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